A directly patternable click-active polymer film via initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD)

A new "click chemistry" active functional polymer film was directly obtained from a commercially available monomer of propargyl acrylate (PA) via easy, one-step process of initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra confirmed that significant amount of the click-active acetylene functional group was retained after the iCVD process. The degree of crosslinking could be controlled by intentionally adding crosslinker, such as ethylene glycol diacrylate (EGDA) that was polymerized with PA to form click-active, completely insoluble copolymer. The formed iCVD polymers could also be grafted on various inorganic substrates with silane coupling agents. These crosslinking and grafting techniques give iCVD polymers chemical and mechanical stability, which allows iCVD polymers applicable to various click chemistry without any modification of reaction conditions. Pre-patterned iCVD polymer could be obtained via photolithography and an azido-functionalized dye molecule was also successfully attached on iCVD polymer via click chemistry. Moreover, pPA film demonstrated sensitivity to e-beam irradiation, which enabled clickable substrates having nanometer scale patterns without requiring the use of an additional e-beam resist. Direct e-beam exposure of this multifunctional iCVD layer, a 200 nm pattern, and QD particles were selectively conjugated on the substrates via click chemistry. Thus, iCVD pPA has shown dual functionality as of "clickable" e-beam sensitive material.